2 Samuel 24:13

Seven years of famine. In 1 Chronicles 21:12 and here in the Septuagint we find "three years." This is probably right as being in harmony with the rest. Three years of famine, three months of defeat, or three days of pestilence. In Ezekiel 14:21 famine, pestilence, and the sword are mentioned as three of God's four sore judgments. But a fourth judgment is there enumerated, namely, that of the increase of wild beasts, and Joshua the Stylite says that in Mesopotamia, as a result of the desolating war between the Romans and Persians, about A.D. 505, beasts of prey had become so numerous that they entered the villages and carried off the children from the streets, and were so bold and ferocious that even the men scarcely dared go about their labours in the fields. Now advise, and see; Hebrew, now know, and see. The phrase is common in the historical books (see 1 Samuel 12:17 ; 1 Samuel 14:38 ; 1 Samuel 23:22 ; 1 Samuel 24:11 ; 1 Samuel 25:17 , etc.). Our translators render the phrase in a multitude of ways without greatly improving it.